Brussels, 22/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, the President-in-Office of the European Council, Antonio Guterres, and European Commission President Romano Prodi will sign a declaration in Lisbon on Thursday, on the fringe of the European Summit, on the implementation of the results of negotiations on a free-trade area between the EU and Mexico. The outcome of negotiations concluded last November (see EUROPE of 18 January, p. 8 and 9), will be formally approved the same day at an EU/Mexico Joint Council at foreign minister level. A few months before the Mexican presidential elections, the symbolic signing of a declaration by European and Mexican Heads of State and the presence of Ernesto Zadillo at the lunch of the Heads of State, Thursday, provides the event with all its political weight.
The timetable for the liberalisation of trade will begin in July in the sectors under Community competence relating to goods, public procurement and competition, and a consultation mechanism on issues of intellectual property could be established. Provisions relating to sectors not under Community competence, like services, may, on the other hand, only take effect after complete ratification of the comprehensive agreement. The European Parliament and a great majority of parliaments of Member States have already approved the agreement. The Mexican Senate, on the other hand, has to vote on the issue this summer. This "comprehensive association agreement" also provides for extended political and economic cooperation, including in areas such as human rights and social action.
The trade agreement provides for: i) stage-by-stage trade liberalisation in the industrial sector in 2007, enabling the EU to have, from 2005, access to the Mexican market practically similar to that that the United States and Canada already enjoy; ii) a four-stage liberalisation by 2010 of 62% of trade in the agricultural sector, cereals, dairy products and meat being excluded from negotiations until the end of WTO negotiations on agriculture; iii) partial liberalisation in the services sector, for the fields of banking, insurance, telecommunications, retailing, energy, tourism, the environment. Local maritime transport and air transport, as well as the audiovisual sector are not covered; iv) access to call for tenders for public procurement in the electricity, water and construction sectors.
Mexico thus intends to diversify its trade, dominated to the tune of 80% by the United States, and the EU is seeking to recover the market share it has lost since the North American free Trade Area (Nafta) took effect. Between 1990 and 1998, the EU's share in Mexican imports fell from 18% to 9.4%.